Eight Years Apart
by irismoirae
Summary: Eight is how much that divided them. They were like brother and sister but then, not. Alternate universe.
1. Chapter 1

Hello! I know it has been so long since my last update on my other stort, yet still, I haven't post another chapter.. But I was really busy last year and I am not quite pleased with how LoK ended. Then when I rewatched LoK again for an inspiration for the other story, this couple looked cute together and I can't help it! So gere, guys. I hope you like 'em. And it's not a one shot so please wait for next chapter patiently will you? Thank you!

Legend of Korra and its characters are not mine. If it ia, Irosami would be real.

**Eight Years Apart**

**Chapter 1**

The first time he saw her, he was curious. Interested, maybe, but mostly curious.

The day was a little bit cloudy, a hint that the rain would start at any moment. It was a rather calm, a situation that rarely occurred in a daycare full of toddlers and children. Mako himself thought it was a little odd, but chose to ignore it anyway. Maybe the other toddlers and children finally got into their senses about yelling while playing. He decided to be happy.

But then he was bored. He used to spend his free time in the daycare watching other toddler or children fighting for an Othello board or television remote control, or just having fun seeing his little brother Bolin put up a joke that was not that funny anyway. Today, everybody seems to mingle in their own business like doing homework or reading books or coloring some pictures in a messy way of a four year old would do.

Mako and Bolin had been spending their time five days a week in the daycare since Mako was seven and Bolin was five year old. Their parents worked until late at night and they were scared to leave both of the boys alone in the house so even if Mako was eleven years old already, they kept sending them to the daycare.

He decided to take a tour of the place. It was not like he has not done it before. It was just he had absolutely nothing to do and he wanted to entertain himself by doing so. He began his tour from the playing room and then stopped when he reached the front office, where parents usually dropped their children off and the staff would take them inside.

That was the moment he saw her.

She was so tiny; far shorter than Mako by several inches. He used the architecture to conceal most of his body, but his head peeked out to see more of the little toddler. He guessed that she must have liked orange and yellow very much because her clothes are full of the colours, so bright that the dress was practically shine like the sun. However, it was not her obnoxious dress that made Mako curious.

It was the fact that the girl was not crying even though it was her first day in the daycare.

He kept staring at her. He kept looking at how the girl walked (it was weirdly poised), how she tried to hold her head up and not looking down, and how she hugged her book tightly against her chest. Somehow he could see that she tried to make herself look tough.

Before Mako realized it, the tiny girl and a caretaker were one step in front of him already.

"Mako, how are you?" the caretaker asked in a cheerful tone, "You have a new friend today! She's Jinora! Jinora, say hello to Mako!"

The eleven year old boy hesitated a bit before finally struck out his hand, "Hi, I'm Mako," he said in a low voice. Jinora shook Mako's hand with the same amount of hesitant as Mako had, and the hand-shaking only lasted for three seconds before Jinora pulled her hand back fast.

"Well, why don't you go back to the playroom together?" the caretaker said, "Move along then, both of you! Have fun!" she added as she patted the crown of both of the children before she walked towards the front desk again.

Mako found the situation confusing, as he did not know what to say to the tiny girl—Jinora, he tried to remember her name. The girl also did not make any effort to put up a conversation or trying to come up with an idea on how they should play together.

"Well… So… What do you want to do, then?" Mako finally started the conversation, and apparently it made Jinora jumped a little, like she did not expect Mako would speak that fast. She pursed her tiny little red lips a little before she opened her mouth to answer.

"Do they have Princess Storybooks in the playroom?" her voice was low, it took Mako his full attention to be able to hear her well. He decided to add this small fact about Jinora inside his head so he would not spare his attention with anything else while talking to her (so he would be able to hear her, that was why).

"Well, I think so," Mako answered, "Do you want to read 'em?"

Jinora nodded, and a small smile formed on her lips. This strung Mako a little, as he never made a little girl smile beforehand. It made him somewhat proud, to be able to make a little girl like Jinora happy.

"Well, let's go then!" he said. He scratched his not-that-scratchy head a little before he finally led the way. He actually thought that maybe he should stick his hand out and make him and Jinora walk hand by hand, like he always did to Bolin when they were younger. However, Bolin was hyperactive and by walking hand by hand it would prevent him being lost. Mako did not see why Jinora would need that kind of action too.

In no time, both of the brunette-haired children arrived in the playroom. They walked toward the book shelf. "So what do you want to read, Jinora? This is your first time here, so you pick any," Mako said as he stuffed himself on a red, fluffy bean bag.

Jinora rolled her eyes to scan the title of the book. After a few long seconds, she took out a book called Cinderella, and she gave it to Mako, which made him frowned.

"Aren't you going to read it, Jinora?" he asked, still did nothing with the book on his lap.

Jinora shook her head slowly. "I don't know how to read," she answered, "I see the pictures only and Mom would tell me the story. Can you do that too?"

"You can't read? How old are you?"

"Three," Jinora said, wiggling three fingers of her right hand on Mako's face. Another fact about Jinora added up; she was only three and had been acting more mature than Bolin had done when he was five. This made Mako widened his eyes and gasped.

"You're only three? And you don't cry for your mommy when you got here?" Mako asked with a curious tone, "How can you do that?"

"Why would you cry for mommy? She will pick me up later, won't she?" Jinora's eyebrows now frowned with confusion, "Or she won't?" and this made her eyes teary. Jinora was ready to cry anytime soon.

"No, no, don't cry!" Mako did not need to put up with another crybaby; he had Bolin in his hands already! "Mommy will come of course! I'll read this for you too! Look!"

Mako opened the Cinderella storybook and colourful pictures were shown. It immediately caught Jinora's attention away from crying. Her brown eyes glued to the multicolour paper and her ears listened to every word that came out of Mako's mouth. She paid attention incredibly well for a three year old girl who just spent her first day in the daycare.

"…and they lived happily ever after. So that's it!" with an enthusiastic but a hoarser voice than before, Mako closed the storybook proudly. He had never told a story before and the first time he had done it, it felt amazing! He might be doing this to Bolin later but then, Bolin was not a really fan of books like Jinora. "What do you want to read next, Jino—"

A soft snore interrupted him. It looked like Jinora had fallen asleep during the storytelling and had been using Mako's thigh as her pillow. Mako must have been too immersed in his storytelling that he did not realize even a bit of Jinora's head's weight. But then, Jinora's weight might have been that much also.

It left Mako stunned, of course. He never had a three year old girl using his thigh as a pillow and he did not know what to do now. He stayed still, tried to not care whether he could feel his leg or not, and kept trying not to wake Jinora up. He tried to relax and used the bean bag as a support for his back.

Then it was the last thing he remembered before waking up from a poke on his cheek.

"Wake up, Mako! Read me another story, please?**"**


	2. Chapter 2

HELLO HELLO HELLO.

Ohmygewdd how long has it been since I last updated? So sorry! And thank you very much for your review and Neikey for your favorite! Feels really good when people appreciate your work! , thank you for your comment and yes I have formulated the ways so the background stories for the characters fitted this story. I hope it won't budge you too much because of these changes. And yeees because the MakoJinora ship is so rare (so rare that I don't even know their pair name.. MakoJi? JinoKo? Pfft) I decided to make one fic myself! Hehehe.

Btw, enjoy. Disclaimer still intact; the Legend of Korra characters belong to Nickelodeon.

* * *

**Eight Years Apart**

**Chapter 2**

The first time Jinora tasted the bitterness of separation is when her age was three years old. Maybe even before, if we counted that time when her father had passed away when she was still a fetus.

Jinora was the only child of an economically challenged family. Her late father was only a teacher who had no tenure, and her now-single mother was a piano teacher in a small music course. Most of the time, Jinora's mother struggled to pay the bills and the taxes and others, thus the family had nothing much left to spend.

When Jinora started to age and she did not need much attention than she previously did, her mother took another side job as a waitress in a fast food restaurant and also a bartender at a country club. Still, the money seemed to come and go.

At a young age, little Jinora seemed to understand what problems her mother has been facing. Although she obviously did not get the whole point, she already knew how to restrain herself from buying too many toys or too many pretty dresses she did not need. Her mother noticed and tried to make Jinora spend more, and finally they decided to throw Jinora a birthday party.

They called it a party although the only people invited into were themselves and there was no clown. The pianist was Jinora's own mother, and the cake was barely enough for two people. Nevertheless, Jinora seemed happy because she did not usually eat pretty colourful candy cake (that was what she called the cake) and her mother asked her if she wanted another one as a birthday present for her mother has not gotten her one. With a big grin, flushed cheeks and tingling eyes, Jinora nodded enthutiastically. Her mother gave her a tight hug and a kiss on the top of her head then went away.

Only, she never came back. The only elder woman passed through Jinora's flat's door was a social service officer who took the little girl to the orphanage (where the orphans insisted on calling the place sunnyplace daycare as every one of them going to leave this place at some point) where she met Mako.

On the first week, Jinora still believed that her mother would come and get her. Mako, who has been advised by one of the caretaker to keep Jinora entertained, did not mention to her that this daycare was actually an orphanage and the mother who would come was not their birth mother. Everytime Jinora chattered about her mother, Mako would simply smile and change the topic into something else.

Then another week began and Jinora began to question about her mother's whereabouts. Her first interrogation victim was obviously Mako, the boy whom she spent a lot of time with. Jinora bombarded Mako with a simple yet had to answer questions like where is my mother and do you think she still love me because she should be worried if we haven't met for a long long time. Mako tried hard to invert Jinora's attention by allowing her doodle on his homework or telling her stories about dragons but Jinora insisted.

Mako could do nothing but ask the caretaker for help.

Of course, like any child whose mental and emotional condition still considered as normal, Jinora cried really hard when he heard that her mother has passed away because of a car crash on the way to the bakery.

Mako regretted asking for help to the caretakers and felt devastated every time he saw the tears falling down from Jinora's shabby, round eyes. The eleven year old boy felt all the miserable things Jinora now went through was his fault, thus he determined to make a smile formed on the little girl's lips again.

Mako spent a whole month being Jinora's shadow. He would rise early so he could prepare breakfast the way Jinora's mother used to (cut the sandwich to four pieces and add a smiley face on the sunny side egg—Jinora had told him on the first week she got in the orphanage). That way, Jinora would want to eat that although she still left a little tiny bit. Then he would only read whatever book Jinora asked him (usually Jack and the Beanstalk and Sleeping Beauty although Mako had read it to her like thousand times already). Also, Mako would tell her what he learned at school because apparently it made Jinora a little bit distracted from her sadness.

In no time, Jinora already as cheerful as she used to be.

However, Jinora experienced another partings when she was five.

The tirtheen year old Mako was deemed as too old to keep mingle around the orphanage. Thus, the head caretaker tried really hard to track families who were willing to take two pre-teen boys (as Mako would never leave Bolin alone).

Although Mako seemed happy with the prospect that he would have a family, he hated to leave Jinora all by herself. Both Mako and Jinora tought and hoped that the process would take like forever; families usually took younger children. It would give them more time to spend together for the last time.

However, they found the right family who was willing to take Mako and Bolin in only three days.

* * *

Mako was used to be alone and able to understand the cruelty of the world starting from a rather young age.

When he was five years old and his brother Bolin was only three, a group of robber broke into his family's house. They took every valuable items they could find and because Mako's father and mother tried to restrain, the robbers killed them both in front of Mako's eyes.

A social worker took Mako and Bolin and gave them to their closest relatives. They were originally enthusiastic of the prospect being in a family again, only to find that their relatives already have so many children and they could not take two more mouths to feed off. The first refusal that Mako has ever experienced was only a week away from his parents' passing.

Yet, it was not the last refusal.

For the first year of being an orphan, Mako and Bolin were tossed around like they were some kind of toys. They went to one and another relative, stayed with them for three months the longest, and then they packed their bags to ride the social worker's car again. Mako and Bolin even started on making bets and games on how soon the next ride going to be. Mako was so sick for their excuses (we got too much to feed! The boys did not do anything to help us! They are the cause of every sibling quarrell that ever happened since they got here and I'm not in the age to hear about it again!) that he stopped listening to it anymore.

Their last relative were two states away from their parents' house. It was literally and idiomatically the furthest relative they ever got from both sides of their parents. She was an old woman who lived alone and all her sons (including Mako and Bolin's father's cousin) were trying to make their life better by working in the big cities.

Little Mako and Bolin's first week was undeniably cold. They were pessimistic and was ready to get shipped back again to another relative's house. They were unresponsive and only did whatever they were told to when their grandmother raised her voice. They refused to have a 'bonding', to help their grandmother bake the cookies, or to help their grandmother feed the chickens.

However, when their grandmother remembered Bolin's forth birthday, and then Mako's sixth birthday, they started to believe that they were not going to go anywhere anymore. The back of the social worker's car was only a distant memory for them and the warmth of their grandmother's hug was a usual welcoming greeting.

They happily helped to feed the chickens with a humming until Mako's seventh birthday, when suddenly their grandmother's condition went kaput. She suddenly collapsed while cooking for Mako's birthday. A panick Bolin immediately called 911 and it was the last time they could see their grandmother's face other than the one they saw from the photo in front of her coffin.

On that day, Mako was terribly devastated. Upset and felt betrayed, he ran away without Bolin on his side. He went wherever his legs brought him. He did not want to go anywhere anymore and he felt he better lived alone as his own choice and not because others determined it for him.

He was so ready to really leave when suddenly Bolin's crying rang in his ears, and the sight of Bolin's shabby eyes was so clear even when Mako tried to close his eyes. He realized that he would be selfish if he left Bolin all by himself, and for all that count, he was never alone.

He and Bolin then, for the really last time, they were sitting on the back of the social worker's car and let it drove them to the sunnyplace daycare, where only a year later, Mako would met Jinora.

And only two years later, to leave.

* * *

"I don't want to go," a faint voice echoed through the darkness of a small room, "I suddenly want to stay here until I die."

"I don't want you to go too," replied another voice, a little higher than the former, "Who else will let me doodle on their homework?"

"Just grab whoever and don't let them see you doodling on their homework,"

"Why I can't go with you? Bolin go with you."

"He's my brother, I can't leave without him."

"Am I not your sister too?"

"You are, but—"

"But what?"

"You are a different sister, Jinora."

"How different?"

"Just different."

"I don't understand."

"Why can't you just understand? I thought the caretakers said that you are smarter than other five year olds."

"You are always bad at explaining, Mako."

"Speak for yourself.."

"I can't really go?"

"...I'm afraid no, Jinora."

"Can I see you?"

"Maybe, but I don't know how far my new home to the daycare. Maybe if it's close I can go here every week with Bolin."

"That's good. You have to tell me everything that happened to you every week!"

"You too have to let me know whose homework you manage to doodle on."

"Promise me not to forget me?"

"Of course. Promise me too?"

"Promise."

"Now can we sleep?"

"Yes."

"Nighty night, Jinora."

"Nanaight, Mako."


End file.
